142 BIRDS' NESTS 



of peaty grass intermixed with fibrous earth, the bowl 

 or cup at the top being lined or " matted " with 

 natural short grass. Some of the nests were conical 

 and had well-trimmed sides of earth. Three or four 

 of the nests were made within a couple of yards of 

 each other, but more often they were many yards 

 apart, and continued in a line along the higher 

 grounds of the beach. iVIr Hall gives as the average 

 dimensions of these nests — thirty-seven inches in 

 breadth, eighteen inches diameter of bowl, and five 

 inches as depth of latter, and two inches the thickness 

 of the lining. The Sooty Albatross breeds on the hills. 

 Three of its nests were examined by this gentleman 

 on Murray Island in Royal Sound. Two of these 

 were built within three feet of each other, whilst the 

 other was several hundreds of yards away. All were 

 made under ledges of rocks, some three hundred feet 

 high and facing the sea. These nests were neat saucer- 

 like structures composed of caked fine fibrous loam, 

 and measured seventeen inches in breadth, the cavity 

 twelve inches in diameter and three inches deep, the 

 depth of the whole structure being about four inches. 

 Dr Kidder describing the nest of this Albatross in the 

 same locality states that one was made upon a shelf 

 formed by tufts of cabbage and azorella at the en- 

 trance of a small cavity in the face of a lofty cliff near 

 the top of a hill. The nest was a conical mound 

 seven or eight inches high, hollowed into a cup at the 

 top and lined rudely with grass. Some of the nests 



